Will Andy be BBC Sports Personality this Year?

Not that it matters in particular, but I keep reading articles where they say that various people, generally sports stars, have picked Wiggins as their winner, but then the quotes just have them saying they expect him to win. Not that he doesn't deserve recognition, but it is, to a certain extent, a self-fulfilling prophecy, and with everyone amazed at how so many of our athletes did, we need some kind of external clue as to who really was the best.

I keep seeing people say that Wiggins deserves it because he's the first ever Brit to win TdF, and pretty much that being the defining reason. The early days of the tour, it was mainly French people who entered, so obviously they've won it loads of times, but that wouldn't make it any easier for one of them to win it this year. It's tough every year, whichever country you come from, but traditionally it hasn't been such an international event and it was 1986 before the tour was won by anyone not from a country that shares a border with France (or France itself).

Mind you, we keep saying that Andy had to contend with 76 years of history, but in his case, that was added pressure, because Britain does host a grand slam, and we used to have considerable home advantage. It was won by a Brit every year for the first 30 years, mainly beating another Brit in the final, and even when it became a more international field, it was still restricted to those who could afford to play as amateurs. In fact, Andy is the only Brit to make it to the final of Wimbledon in the Open era, but I think if you are going to judge your achievement based on what your compatriots have managed, you also need to look at how close any of them are to doing what you are doing now.

Britain has a lot of very good cyclists, and rowers (and horse jumpers), and while being the very best is still incredibly tough - there is obviously a good system in place to help you be your very best. Compare that with tennis. Including Andy, there are 58 British players with ATP ranking points for singles, but excluding Andy, they have 2175 points between them, compared with Andy's 8000. Andy earned 79% of all ranking points awarded to British players in 2012.

Andy is #3 in the world with his 8000 points, Jamie Baker and Josh Goodall have managed to both get 194 points last year, to be in 245th and 246th position respectively. Meanwhile, Wiggins is #2 in the cycling world rankings with 601 points with the 2nd Brit, Froome is 7th with 376 points, and who arguably would have done better this year if they'd not made the decision that this year the team was supporting Wiggins to win TdF.

You can argue all day about which sport is tougher, and I fully accept that comparisons relying on points distributions and rankings within a single sport is vulnerable to criticism, never mind across sports, but I think you need to see stats like that to realise just how far ahead of the pack Andy really is, and why he deserves more respect for what he achieved - largely through being a stubborn git and doing it his own way.

The joke on the Outnumbered for Comic Relief was that it probably wasn't that impressive to be British number one. Sadly, that is true, and I'm sure that's why a lot of people think the only reason he's hyped is because he's all we've got. This Summer changed views a bit, but especially in Olympic year, people struggle with accepting that a top player still won't win everything they enter.

Elena re your earlier post about Radio Times: I get mine delivered. How annoying that they didn't deliver the one with Andy on the cover - I've got Rory M. Anyway it seems there's a pre SPOTY poll at radiotimes.com/sportspersonality Haven't visited the site yet myself. But plan to do so.Just voted and believe it or not Andy is 2nd after Wiggins and not as far behind as I'd have expectedAnd he came 2nd in Guardian poll with 16% - Wiggins got 51%.

It took me ages to find a RT with Andy on the cover. My local big Tesco only had Bradley Wiggins and Mo Farrah covers (dozens of them) and Morrisons only had Nicola Adams, then the next shop only had more Wiggins and Farrah, then it was Adams and McIlroy. I've no idea if they just sent them out willy-nilly, or attempted some demographics, or if all of the Andy ones were gone, but when I eventually found an Andy cover, it was behind a couple of Wiggins, more Farrah, Adams and Grainger.

If I had spotted another Andy cover, I intended to put it at the front, so that at least passing shoppers could see the photo of him looking all pleased and happy - considering so many are still moaning about him never being happy, even when he wins.

Regarding the polls and voting. I noticed on twitter a person who used to work on SPOTY talking about the power of social media, and that he thought last year Cavendish, and his fans, used twitter to great effect to encourage voting from cycling fans. The man was suggesting to an acquaintance of Katherine Grainger that she should get on twitter and drum up support. Apparently she is the only one without twitter, unless you count Bradley Wiggins. (He did have it, only deleted his account when the Mail ran that story about his taxes.) I can't see her being the sort to canvas for votes, nor likely to make a dent in them. Apparently Cavendish won last year's award with over 50% of the vote. If he can get that for not winning the tour, no wonder expectations are so high for Bradley - plus Sky are apparently repeating their documentary about his year on the 16th. Not sure if it'll be in time to influence the vote.

If I had spotted another Andy cover, I intended to put it at the front, so that at least passing shoppers could see the photo of him looking all pleased and happy - considering so many are still moaning about him never being happy, even when he wins.

I've said this already much earlier in this thread. Andy should win this by a landslide, but Wiggins will of course take the honour.

No disrespect to the be-sideburned one, but I cannot take road cycling seriously after a decade (at least) of scandals, cheats, liars etc.

Andy winning the USO will live on in my heart as the greatest single sporting achievement by a British sportsman of my lifetime - I've said that before as well, and my opinion on this will not alter. The Olympic Gold Medal was icing on the cake.

Here, the world's number one tennis player Novak Djokovic backs rival Andy Murray.

As turnarounds go, Andy Murray's sporting summer represented a renaissance as remarkable as it was unprecedented in a British sport for so long on life support.

Reaching the singles final of Wimbledon - the first British man to do so in several lifetimes - should never have felt like a failure, regardless of the tears that followed his four-set defeat to Roger Federer. By itself it was a landmark, even if the final ascension was by Swiss rather than Scot.

Those who had always doubted Murray were loud with their told-you-so's. Even the believers wondered if nearly would ever convert to now. Few in either camp realised on that soggy July Sunday afternoon that the best was still to come. Twice.

Four weeks later, this time in bright Centre Court sunshine rather than under roof and lights, came the first golden wonder: Federer, dispatched in three chanceless sets, to make Murray Olympic champion 96 years after the last Briton to win tennis gold, Josiah Ritchie.

If that was redemption, exultation was to follow at the US Open in New York the following month. Up against Novak Djokovic, reigning champion and so often Murray's nemesis, the 25-year-old did at his 28th attempt what no British male had done for 76 years and triumphed in a Grand Slam final.

Murray being Murray, Djokovic being Djokovic, it was never going to be easy. But in coming through 7-6 (12-10) 7-5 2-6 3-6 6-2 Murray not only produced a late-night thriller in the city that never sleeps but ended one of the great historical hoodoos.

"Andy had a fantastic year," Djokovic told BBC Sport. "To win his first Grand Slam title, in New York, and to win the Olympic Games which only come around every four years - it could barely be more satisfying for him.

"Winning in London in front of his home crowd after reaching the final of Wimbledon a few weeks earlier - he has been playing the tennis of his life."

Murray, soundly beaten in all four of his previous Grand Slam finals, studied the lessons of those painful defeats and produced a blueprint for 2012 that could match the best and then overcome them.

Murray Mk II had greater mental resilience, fewer descents into self-recrimination, stronger powers of concentration. There was more aggression on court, a beefed-up forehand and a more unyielding serve.

In his camp he had Ivan Lendl, emotionless automaton and perfect exemplar for a player who had been so close for so long. In the stands at Flushing Meadow he even had James Bond, although Sean Connery's patent nervousness as the match entered its fifth set was matched in knotted British stomachs around the world.

"From my point of view, Andy has improved such a lot and he has more confidence on the court," says Djokovic.

"He is very professional, he is very competitive. He has a big team of people around him, and that's the way to do it - he's trying to take care of every single detail in his career so that he can feel comfortable in big matches and play to his absolute best.

"In 2012 he got more aggressive on court, going for his shots more, particularly on his first shot after his serve.

"That was a big change. He is now a very complete player, for all of us who have to face him: a player who can win on any surface."

Murray has not always found universal appreciation from his compatriots. He has never sought the sporting fan's approval nor attempted to project a persona that was anything but the reality: a man intent only on tennis and pushing himself as far as he could in it.

The inaccurate image many had of him - taciturn, detached, cool in the face of public ferment - changed for good with his Centre Court confession after that Wimbledon defeat.

He had cried on court before, most notably after semi-final defeat to Djokovic at the Australian Open in January, but this was rawer still: eyes scrunched, voice disintegrating, hands over face.

In that moment there was instant empathy, and then sustained compassion, from the thousands around Centre Court and the millions more watching at home. He had tried, and he had got closer than ever before.

It made all that happened in the next few extraordinary weeks all the more resonant. Murray had requested a few moments alone on Centre at the start of the Olympic tournament, just to make sure those raw wounds were ready for more potential punishment.

In the event, the punishment was dished out to others - to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round, Djokovic in the semis and Federer, once again world number one, in that giddy final. He lost only one set all week, and that in the second round.

In New York there would be tougher battles, not least in the swirling gales that pulled apart his semi-final win over Tomas Berdych, and none more so than in the final against Djokovic.

Murray took the first set on a tie-break, the second with a single late break. At two sets up in a Grand Slam final he was in uncharted territory; two hours later, at two sets all and with all the momentum with his garlanded rival, he was staring at a horribly familiar reverse.

I obviously didn't read that part properly. Been a long Monday is all I can say

Not blaming you at all-it was a lovely piece,and I've often posted pieces myself that were great articles but had little mistakes in them.It happens.Thank you for posting it-I really enjoyed it!It is a funny mistake to make though,given that it's a BBC piece and the BBC covered the Olympics so extensively.

I think it's really sweet of Nole to do that-I did hear,ages ago round the time of the WTF,that he mentioned in an interview that he hoped people would vote for Andy,but I didn't think a whole column would be written around it.His ending quote was so sincere,and really lovely.